One of the reasons Sheafe settled on Schonemann was that the pastor lived alone. At one point, Sheafe had chosen a different church leader but then saw two women leave that person’s residence. Because it was important to Sheafe that he punish only the pastors leading people astray, he decided to find a different church leader who lived alone.
Sheafe agreed with Whitney when she told him that anyone who came across Schonemann’s murder scene would be “horrified.”
“That’s right,” he said. When she asked if he felt “satisfied” with the murder, he said, “Look, it’s not in my heart to go around killing people.”
To the question of whether he felt any remorse for Schonemann’s family, Sheafe said, “No.”
“Not only do I have zero remorse, I plan on fulfilling what I started,” he said, going on to say that he wants to “execute every single priest and burn every church to the ground.”
At different times, Sheafe expressed a willingness to receive the death penalty as well as a belief that God would not allow him to die. He told Whitney that he never tried to get away with his actions. He also said that God would not let him spend his life in jail nor “allow anyone to execute me.”
RELATED: Suspect Confesses to Grisly Murder of AZ Pastor, Says He Had Planned To ‘Crucify’ More Pastors
When Whitney told Sheafe he would probably be in prison for the rest of his life, he answered, “That’s what you think,” adding, “You can’t kill God’s son.”
Fox 10 Phoenix published a statement from Schonemann’s family June 24 in which the family expressed dismay at the media attention Sheafe has been receiving:
What we have seen over the last week is this suspect enjoying the attention. His side of the story is half of the whole story, and we see the need to cover it however challenging that may be for us. We are quite surprised by his ability to freely message with county supplied devices. We are concerned about his increasing notoriety and possibly gaining a following. He has clearly stated his intentions to continue his mission. From the beginning, our focus has been to stop the suspect before anyone else got hurt. We see the surge of media attention and his ability to communicate freely as a very serious threat to that end.
Pastors Urge Churches To Check Their Security
Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and Oklahoma State Sen. Dusty Deevers, pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Elgin, in Elgin, Oklahoma, each reposted Clark’s interview with Sheafe and encouraged churches to evaluate their security measures.
“Every church needs wise, godly, trained men to think about & prepare for such unthinkable events,” said Ascol, directing his followers to a resource at Founders Ministries, of which Ascol is president.
“Stay vigilant,” said Deevers. “Churches, make yourselves hard targets or you’re sitting ducks. You better have a security team in place with trained and capable warriors.”
It was in fact the quick actions of the security team at a church in Michigan Sunday that prevented what likely would have been a mass shooting at a VBS service.
RELATED: Security Team at Michigan Church Thwarts Shooting During VBS Worship Service
